26 Oct 2014 Sunday Times
HUMANS are probably the sole masters of the universe, because the evolutionary flukes that gave rise to us are highly unlikely ever to have happened on another planet, according to Professor Brian Cox.

He has stepped into one of science’s longest-lasting controversies: could intelligent life have evolved on any planet besides Earth? His conclusion: we are alone.

Cox’s reasoning derives largely from one observation — we have never seen any alien artefacts. He argues that, if any such intelligence had evolved, it would have spread itself or its space probes across the galaxy — and we have seen nothing.

Their absence, he argues, “suggests that there is only one advanced technological civilisation in this galaxy and there has only ever been one — and that’s us. We are unique.”

Good chance he's right but we'll probably never know for sure, the universe is quite a big place. Will we ever have the technology available to travel out of the Milky Way? I'm waiting to see if we'll even be able to survive a trip to Mars, that should be interesting.

Think it's fair to say though, we're never going to get a situation where several alien species get together for a drink down the local pub like in Star Trek, Star Wars, Mass Effect, etc.